starring Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Akim Tamiroff
directed by Jean-Luc Godard
French with English subtitles
109 minutes
Lemmy Caution travels to Alphaville from the Outer Countries. He travels under the name of Ivan Johnson and claims to be a correspondent for Figaro-Pravda. He checks into a hotel where he meets Natacha Von Braun.
Lemmy goes looking for someone he knows. He quickly finds out that he is being tailed. He finds his friend and questions him about Natacha and her father, Professor Von Braun. According to his friend it is the professor who has remade society in Alphaville which includes getting rid of the artists. Lemmy's friend hands over a book (Capital de la Douleur) just before he dies and tells Lemmy that he should make the Alpha 60, the great supercomputer, destroy itself.
Lemmy goes to see Natacha at the Institute of General Semantics. She takes him to an event where one-by-one men are being executed for acting illogically. Natacha seems surprised at his disbelief at what they are witnessing.
Professor Von Braun is at the party. Lemmy gets a moment alone with him but the Professor doesn't want to talk to him. Lemmy is grabbed by men and taken to a facility where he is interrogated by a machine, a subset of Alpha 60. Lemmy's answers confuse the machine. It can tell that he is intelligent. It may have a use for him. If it does not play along then he will be executed. He is warned about asking why and told that he should learn to accept explanations.
Lemmy is shown around some more. He learns that Alphaville is now at war with the Outer Countries. He gets away from the people keeping an eye on him and looks around. He starts to put the pieces together. He realizes that he is in great danger. He returns to the hotel. Natacha is there. He shows her Capital de la Douleur. He asks her to read the poems found in it. She does but it makes her uncomfortable. He tells that if they are being observed them her life might be in danger.
Lemmy is taken in for questioning. The machine has more questions for him. He has had enough. He shoots his way out of the detention center. He goes and finds Professor Von Braun. He tries to talk him into leaving Alphaville, into returning to the Outer Countries. The Professor refuses. Lemmy shoots him and goes looking for Natacha. He finds her just as everything in Alphaville is coming apart. They leave Alphaville together in his car.
Thoughts
I had seen this movie once before today, in Nov 2002. I didn't take any notes back then and I don't have any strong memories of the movie from that viewing. I went to see the movie this afternoon at the AFI. It was being shown as part of a Jean-Luc Godard retrospective. I found it to be confusing. I had a little bit of trouble staying awake. The ending made sense but most of what preceded it was a jumble in my head.
I watched the movie again, this evening, on Kanopy. I took copious notes as I watched it in the evening. There were nuances that I missed on my previous viewing but I don't think I missed as much as I feared I did. I don't regret watching it a second time. I like the thrust of the movie and I enjoyed piecing it all together.
Notes
Eddie Constantine played the part of Lemmy Caution. Constantine was an American actor who starred in many foreign films. Alphaville was the eighth Lemmy Caution film that he made. The other Lemmy Caution films did not have a science fiction angle. The Lemmy Caution films Constantine made prior to Alphaville were (like this film) all made in French and (unlike this film) don't have a very big following in the United States, judging by the number of ratings they have on IMDb. All of his first seven Lemmy Caution films have somewhere between 100 and 200 ratings on IMDb. Alphaville has over 27,000 ratings on IMDb.
Anna Karina played the part of Natacha Von Braun. She was in a number of other highly rated French films but I have not seen any of them.
Akim Tamiroff played the part of Professor Von Braun. He had a lengthy and busy career in movies and television. I think the only other thing I have seen him in is The Great McGinty (1940).
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